Getting a bachelor’s or a master’s degree in Iraq doesn’t exclude you from selling cigarettes or vegetables on the street. There’s absolutely no value for education over there, you need connections rather; in fact, the only reason a person might get a degree is to keep his/her family’s name high. I grew up in a family which had goals and strict rules about education, which made me want to study even more at times. My Arabic teacher told me once that he was very proud of me and he expected me to become an inventor once I get older, and he also said he could swear his life on it. He always told me to read books, whether fiction or not, whether a story or a how-to manual; he always asked me to read more and more.

During my eighth grade, many problems occurred which caused all of our school to be closed down for many months.

On a Monday morning, as we were heading to class from the concrete field, I heard people shouting and a group of people ran out of the building next to us. Just another man trying to shoot someone, we thought. The principal ran all the way to our fields and told us to not leave the campus and to stay away from the school buildings. We were a group of seven guys, and just like any other kids who take things for granted, we decided to find out what was going on. I remember a friend of mine and I picked up our backpacks and started running after the other guys who ran before us. For a moment, I couldn’t see anything, I remember seeing a white flash that stayed on for a millisecond and a huge pressure threw me back. I was laying on the ground. All my body felt sore. I opened my eyes while on the ground, facing up; I was still conscious. I looked around and saw nothing but smoke and fire coming out of the school building. I felt someone dragging me from my leg away from the building, and I remember trying to stand up on my own. I got up and my friend who ran late with me was still on the ground bleeding, and I noticed he was still breathing. I yelled at many people to call an ambulance, which the responds I got were “They don’t have enough cars and they’re all working”. I noticed that my leg was bleeding after several minutes, and didn’t feel a thing still. For a second I thought I was hit, but it was just the wound of me being thrown on the concrete ground. An old lady offered her head scarf to wrap my leg with, but I refused and kept walking and tried to find a way to get someone to help the injured. There wasn’t an announcement, but by that time I knew the other five guys who ran before us passed away. An ambulance finally arrived with only the driver; we had around thirty injured people, which most of them were walking around looking like they were trying to solve a puzzle. We lifted the most injured ones and put them all in the ambulance and he drove to the nearest hospital. I walked back in the school’s building where some parts of it were still burning. I remember yelling “anyone here?” many times, but an older guy walked out of a room and said he already checked many times. No one who was around the building made it.

A day later we found out that my Arabic teacher was talking to my five friends during that time, and possibly asking them to leave, and was taken away by the explosion as well. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe he was killed in the explosion. “He was a wise man, this can’t be true” I though to my self for some reason. We also heard that some former student, a drop out, planted the bomb and was right next to it by the time he blew him self and others up. My friend, who survived, joined me later as we went to the church to mourn the Christian ones who passed away, and then the mosque to mourn the Muslim ones.

I didn’t go to school for the rest of the year and forgot a lot of things. By then, we were able to leave the country in late 2004 and head to Amman, Jordan. We came to the U.S. afterwords. After coming to the U.S., I realized that a degree actually does take you to places and takes you straight to your goals, even though you might need to work hard for it. All you need is studying.

I learned a lesson the very hard way. After going through many death experiences, you get used to bombs and shootings. However, my Arabic teacher made another point; a point that changed my life forever. “I could become an inventor!” I thought. “The man told me that I could.” I came to the U.S., went to high school, graduated, and now I’m working on getting a master’s degree in Computer Science.

I no longer have to be worried about finding connections in the department I want to work in. I no longer have to bribe the people who are in charge just to get a chance to get looked at for a job interview. It’s all about education and dedication now. I learned. I learned at the cost of people’s lives. I learned at the cost of my Arabic teacher’s life.

Apo Avedissian